From a smartphone perspective my main concern isn’t seeing inappropriate content that could “scar” them. Parental controls can help with this and kids are all taught now about internet safety etc at school and I’ve been teaching my kids that for years too. The issues with smartphones are far more complex than that.
They are massively addictive and once children have them they start to choose the phone over other activities and experiences. Most 11 year olds do not have the self control to put the phone down and do other stuff. And even that is more complex- yes he will need to be able to access the internet and use tech for homework, but that can be done on a family laptop. A phone isn’t the best device for that anyway but the family laptop won’t also be buzzing and pinging with all the chat from his mates. It’s easier in a laptop to sit and do the task you’ve gone on to do and not to get distracted by everything else on there. When the phone does everything it becomes difficult to remove, you might want to stop them messaging and browsing in the evening but then they say they need their phone for their homework app- better to have the homework app somewhere else so it can be used separately. Our school are quite clear that no one needs a smart phone. Yes the homework is set on an app but that can be accessed at home on a shared device.
The next issue is consumerism and the influence of internet content and social media on children. A huge amount of content on YouTube/tiktok etc is advertising, pure and simple. Kids see it and they want it. And yes you can keep saying no as a parent but it’s about more than that, it’s about children being constantly told that they want these things that they should want these things that they NEED these things because they’re the most awesome things every, that everyone has these thing. Yes we had tv ads growing up but that was 2 minutes in a 30 minute programme. Often the content that kids are seeing is just an ad or it’s heavily interspersed with plugs. It’s designed to make them feel that they’re missing out, basically to make them feel unhappy that they don’t have those items- that isn’t good for them.
There are also the dangers of taking and sharing images. Yes we can be confident that we’ve taught our children the issues around this but are you confident every other child’s parents have done the same and that they are following that advice? We can’t be in control of what is sent to our children and it can land them in serious trouble.
Smartphones are part of the world we live in but they’re only part of that world for children and young teens because we as adults are allowing them to be. We can push back- if school make it hard for them if they don’t have one then question that- there was guidance published this year on this exact matter. Some schools are going completely smartphone free. You might find if you speak to school that they actually say what ours did which is that they use online platforms but there is no need for them to be accessed on a phone and that phones are not required in school (sometimes kids tell you they need something for school and it’s not the whole story….) It doesn’t take many kids not to have a smartphone for the “everyone has one” argument to fall down but it does take a few families to take those steps and make those choices.
This isn’t about hiding children away from the world or not teaching them essential
life skills because of fear. It’s about staging their access to the internet and devices which are shown to cause harm in children. They don’t need to learn how to use a smartphone at 8 or 11, I was 30 before I had one and I worked it out fine. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing and they’ve got time to learn all of this over a few years, not just be given the internet in their pocket and be expected to make good choices with that.